reviews

​Sam Morrow (from the album Concrete and Mud available on Forty Below Records)A member in good standing, flying the flag of California Country, Sam Morrow gets musically nostalgic for his Houston, Texas birthplace with new songs. On his recent release, Concrete and Mud, Sam tells the story of a traveling troubadour as a classic Texas singer/songwriter on “Coming Home” while he touches “Mississippi River” with Delta Folk Blues. Sam Morrow stretches on other tracks of Concrete and Mud, staying true to his Roots style, adding Country to Western as he pulls off the highway, signing a honky tonk tab as “Paid by the Mile” while he uses guitar notes to mark the pros and cons in “Good Ol’ Days” and partners with Jaime Wyatt in “Skinny Elvis” to select preferences for The King in a song.

Songman becomes bandleader on Concrete and Mud, Sam Morrow recording with Eric Corne producing, capturing the album live in studio on a vintage Neve 8068 console. A Little Feat groove opens Concrete and Mud in “Heartbreak Man”, thinning the playing to a sparse noir rhythm carrying “Weight of a Stone” as a funky beat snakes like tendrils of smoke from “Cigarettes”. Sam Morrow bakes a desert melody into the story of a guitar player heading west as Concrete and Mud trades a home address from San Angelo, Texas to “San Fernando Sunshine”.